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June 28 rush-hour delay on NSL, Tuas West Extension due to ‘human error’

SINGAPORE — The train delays during rush hour along the North-South Line (NSL) and the Tuas West Extension on June 28 was due to human error, and not due to the new signalling system, said SMRT and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) on Friday (July 14).

Commuters at Bishan MRT Station affected by the signalling fault on the North-South Line on June 28, 2017. Photo: Esther Leong/TODAY

Commuters at Bishan MRT Station affected by the signalling fault on the North-South Line on June 28, 2017. Photo: Esther Leong/TODAY

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SINGAPORE — The train delays during rush hour along the North-South Line (NSL) and the Tuas West Extension on June 28 was due to human error, and not due to the new signalling system, said SMRT and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) on Friday (July 14).

While installing some software, a team from Thales, the company supplying the signalling systems, missed a step. This led to all trains on both lines losing communications, in what was the single biggest train disruption in 14 months.

In a joint media briefing, Mr Tan Yih Long, the LTA’s re-signalling project director, said the mistake was made while a Thales team was configuring and loading some new radio software as part of implementing the new signalling system in East-West Line (EWL) stations.

SMRT Trains’ chief executive Lee Ling Wee added: “While doing all that, they missed a step and caused a situation where you have two different kinds of software coexisting (that are) incompatible ... therefore sending out a lot of noise signals that caused the trains (to be unable) to talk to the system."

“There were certain steps that the Thales engineers had to follow; they did not follow the exact protocol.”

As a result, trains on both lines lost communications, a safety feature was triggered, and all trains came to a halt.

This led to train delays of more than two hours during the evening rush hour on June 28.

Thales Singapore country director and CEO, Mr Kevin Chow, who was also present at the briefing, told reporters that it was an incident caused by a “deployment action”.

“We have learnt from the incident, and taken operational and technical steps to prevent this from happening again,” he added.

This included process improvements, such as tight coordination with SMRT and the LTA to ensure that for certain tasks, the Thales team only carries them out when fully authorised by the train operator and the authority.

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